Not only did this latest gift from Steve contain another great Redbook cover by Lucia...

... it included a photo of the artist - wow! At long last, we now know what Lucia Lerner (whom her old co-worker Will Nelson described to me as "the queen" of the Stephens Biondi DiCicco art studio in 1950s Chicago) looked like.

Reading the brief description above about Lucia leaves me even more impressed than I've been since first beginning my research into Lucia's career. Lucia was a single mom raising a daughter on her own, a tremendously talented and successful illustrator and, from all accounts, a tough but fair business woman. All of which makes her exceptional for the times in which she lived.

4 comments:

Lerner is truly magnifico! The fact that even the field of illustration was considered a man's game speaks volumes about how discouraged women were from building a professional career back then. Illustration calls for someone with a sense of beauty and rendering capabilities to convey a message--and that is definitely a gender-free skill! Hurray for Lucia!

I was reading about her on your blog previously and on the Female Illustrators blog, and then this week I found a picture by her in one of my Woman's Own magazines from the '50s! I'll post it up within the next couple of days on my own blog. I actually checked back here to see if you had any more information on her; lo and behold there was this! Thanks so much, really enjoying reading about a field I only recently found out about. Emma :)

Hi there! I've just stumbled across your blog from 'Fuel Your Inspiration' and I am absolutely loving it!! I am a young Australian graphic designer, and I absolutely LOVE illustration and am in love with the fifties! =D